jenniferleigh1
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2013
- Messages
- 13
So my hubby and I stayed at the Royal Pacific for the first time from July 4-July 6th. We decided to hit SeaWorld on July 4th and had a great time- Ill write about that experience in the SeaWorld forum. We ended up dedicated the entire day of July 5th to both Universal and IOA and used our hotel express pass for every ride. We missed the IOA early entry at 7:00am so we decided to be at the Universal gates at 7:45 for their 8:00am early entry admission.
We went straight to Transformers so we could experience that before it got too crowded. We were part of the first group of people to get to the attraction and we waited about 10 minutes before we got on the ride. The whole attraction is awesome! I really love how everything came together. Our only issue was the ride had technical issues and stopped about ½ way through and we were just stuck in the car for about 10-12 minutes waiting for it to restart. Guess they are still trying to get the kinks out. Luckily, they let us go through the child swap entrance and re-ride if we wanted to. I really appreciated this because I didnt want to have to wait all over again. I really loved this ride!
Right after Transformers, we hit Despicable Me and waited about 10 minutes as well. I have never been on this ride before thought this was really cute. I was laughing through most of it and I really enjoyed the beginning part when Gru is talking to you. If this was longer than like 40 minutes, I probably wouldnt have gone on, but thats just my preference.
We then went to The Beverly Hills Boulangerie for some pastries and actually really enjoyed it. We definitely did a sugar overload but it was totally worth it! RRR was unfortunately down so we were unable to do this in the morning. At this point, the park opened to the general public and we headed over to The Mummy- again, only a 10 minute wait through express line. We decided to then go over to IOA and get some fun rides in.
We went directly to Dueling Dragons (sorry I refuse to call it the Dragon Challenge lol) and had about a 20 minute wait, only because we wanted front row. If we just went through express, we would have been on within 5 minutes. When we got to DD, the Forbidden Journey was at a 75 minute wait so we decided to skip it and go around the park. Since we never did Poseidons Fury before, we decided to try it out because at this point it was so hot and we were both drenched in sweat. It was cheesy like most people say but I did enjoy it as a first timer. In the future, I probably wouldnt do it again. We had about a 15 minute wait for this. We then went to Jurassic Park to cool off and got drenched, which was so refreshing.
We ended up leaving around 12:30 because the heat became unbearable and the air was thick. Went back to the hotel, took a nap, showered went to dinner at Choup Chop (very good btw) and got back to the parks at 7:00pm. RRR was finally back open and we had to wait about 25 minutes to get through the express. We went back to the DD and again only about a 5 minute wait. At this point, about 8:00pm, Forbidden Journey was only a 35 minute wait. We also hit the Hulk and waited about 10 minutes.
Overall, I was surprised at how short the wait times were with the express pass, especially on the Friday after a holiday. Mostly averaged around 15-20 minutes and a little longer if you waited for front row. The only real issue was the heat so we were prepared by drinking lots of water and incorporated air conditioned rides in between outdoor rides. It was very crowded which made it a little more difficult but wasnt unbearable. The express pass was definitely key and taking a nice break in the middle of the day really helped. Really sad that its over and were back to reality this week!
We went straight to Transformers so we could experience that before it got too crowded. We were part of the first group of people to get to the attraction and we waited about 10 minutes before we got on the ride. The whole attraction is awesome! I really love how everything came together. Our only issue was the ride had technical issues and stopped about ½ way through and we were just stuck in the car for about 10-12 minutes waiting for it to restart. Guess they are still trying to get the kinks out. Luckily, they let us go through the child swap entrance and re-ride if we wanted to. I really appreciated this because I didnt want to have to wait all over again. I really loved this ride!
Right after Transformers, we hit Despicable Me and waited about 10 minutes as well. I have never been on this ride before thought this was really cute. I was laughing through most of it and I really enjoyed the beginning part when Gru is talking to you. If this was longer than like 40 minutes, I probably wouldnt have gone on, but thats just my preference.
We then went to The Beverly Hills Boulangerie for some pastries and actually really enjoyed it. We definitely did a sugar overload but it was totally worth it! RRR was unfortunately down so we were unable to do this in the morning. At this point, the park opened to the general public and we headed over to The Mummy- again, only a 10 minute wait through express line. We decided to then go over to IOA and get some fun rides in.
We went directly to Dueling Dragons (sorry I refuse to call it the Dragon Challenge lol) and had about a 20 minute wait, only because we wanted front row. If we just went through express, we would have been on within 5 minutes. When we got to DD, the Forbidden Journey was at a 75 minute wait so we decided to skip it and go around the park. Since we never did Poseidons Fury before, we decided to try it out because at this point it was so hot and we were both drenched in sweat. It was cheesy like most people say but I did enjoy it as a first timer. In the future, I probably wouldnt do it again. We had about a 15 minute wait for this. We then went to Jurassic Park to cool off and got drenched, which was so refreshing.
We ended up leaving around 12:30 because the heat became unbearable and the air was thick. Went back to the hotel, took a nap, showered went to dinner at Choup Chop (very good btw) and got back to the parks at 7:00pm. RRR was finally back open and we had to wait about 25 minutes to get through the express. We went back to the DD and again only about a 5 minute wait. At this point, about 8:00pm, Forbidden Journey was only a 35 minute wait. We also hit the Hulk and waited about 10 minutes.
Overall, I was surprised at how short the wait times were with the express pass, especially on the Friday after a holiday. Mostly averaged around 15-20 minutes and a little longer if you waited for front row. The only real issue was the heat so we were prepared by drinking lots of water and incorporated air conditioned rides in between outdoor rides. It was very crowded which made it a little more difficult but wasnt unbearable. The express pass was definitely key and taking a nice break in the middle of the day really helped. Really sad that its over and were back to reality this week!
